Australian Prime criticism of the statement about the issue of Papua thumbnail

Australian Prime criticism of the statement about the issue of Papua thumbnail

Papuan human rights activists criticized the statement of Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia last weekend who said that Australia fully recognizes Indonesia’s sovereignty over Papua since rate it will bring adverse effects to resolve problems of human rights violations in Papua.

In a joint press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Istana Bogor, West Java, on Friday (5/7) and then the following hold third Annual Meeting of the Indonesia-Australia, Rudd said, “I want to reiterate openly here, successive Prime Minister of Australia (before me) have said in the past, that Australia recognizes, recognized in the past and will be acknowledged in the future, the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia, including Papua. ”

Rudd praised President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to call it as being a strong leader in addressing the problems in Papua, including the program of special autonomy package granted to development in Papua.

He also said Australia would like to work with the government for the welfare and safety of long-term and stable in Papua, which is part of the Republic of Indonesia.

Marthen Goo, activists of the National Papua Solidarity (BREATH) rate statement Rudd will bring negative impact on the settlement of the problem of violence and human rights violations in Papua, which is still massive.

“Australia should press the Indonesian government to end the violence and human rights violations in Papua, as well as opening up a dialogue between the central government and Papuans,” he told ucanews.com, Monday (8/7).

He added that Australia can not only expressed support for Indonesian sovereignty, regardless of the conditions experienced by Papuans.

Goo claim, Rudd turned a blind eye to the issue of Papua and say, issues that should be of interest Rudd is a massive human rights violations suffered by Papuans.

“However, it is not mentioned in the statement of Kevin Rudd,” Goo said.

Elias Ramosta Patege, another activist from BREATHING confessed suspect, the statement is only intended to pass Rudd Australia’s economic interests in Indonesia.

“With support, they (Australia) actually has a specific target, menggeruk natural resources in Indonesia, especially in Papua,” he explained.

He said, Australia is currently seeing strong position of the Indonesian government in reducing volatility in Papua, Indonesia so that they support.

“They (Australia) will support the parties in their favor, in this case being a strong position,” he said.

According BREATHING, cases of human rights violations such as shootings and other violence that resulted in civilian deaths, including military and police, are still happening every month and are always casualties.

Last event occurred on June 26, where a military member I Wayan Sukarta and a driver named Tono shot by paramilitary groups in Puncak Jaya. A month earlier, on May 1 Papuan rally ended with a shooting that caused two civilians died in Sorong and Biak 1 person shot at, as well as 5 other victims were injured.

In addition, there are also cases of past human rights violations that has yet tersesaikan, like shooting that killed an estimated hundreds of civilians in Biak in 1998 when they were staged demontstrasi.

This tragedy that erupted on July 6, 1998 known as “Bloody Biak Tragedy”, and on Saturday (6/7) and have reached the age of 15 years, but there is no legal process for this event